How to Teach Kids to Care

I hear parents complain that their kids don’t appreciate what they have. So much is available to our kids today that it’s hard for them to imagine being without. Then when they push their parents for more, it triggers a feeling of resentment for the parents as they think about all they’ve done and provided for their kids so far.

Last chance! Up to 50% off all dresses at Gymboree!

My own kids occasionally threw in the, “All my friends have an (insert anyone of these here: iPhone, TV, Xbox, Six Flags pass, etc.), why can’t I have one?” It’s common for them to think that every other child has what they want, even though it may not be true. Remain calm when they make these claims and stand firm in your position to not cave at their demands.

Instead of reminding your children of all that you’ve bought or done for them, let their cries for more stuff be your reminder to get them involved in something that gives to others. From food banks, to pet adoption groups, to the Salvation Army and churches, all communities have opportunities for individuals, families and even children to volunteer in service to others.

There is no better way to teach your children the act of giving then to do it right alongside them. Avoid dropping your kids off with an organization for them to volunteer, unless it’s an organization that is specific to youth participation. You are the primary and most important teacher for your children so roll your sleeves up and get in there with them to participate. 

I read a news story recently, featuring a 16-year-old boy in Rhode Island who started a project of providing brand new donated shoes to homeless children. In the four years it’s been running, he’s provided 16,000 pairs across 32 states. The article in People magazine included testimony from recipients of this giving organization’s gifts to families.

And where did this admirable young man get the notion to start such a wonderful organization? His parents took him to a homeless shelter when he was five years old. When he realized that his light-up sneakers did not compare to the shoes worn by the homeless children, which were falling apart, that experience remained with him and influenced his actions as he approached the teen years.

As the story supports, telling your children about those who are less fortunate than they are, may not be enough to matter. When I was a child, I remember my elders warning me about all the children that were starving in foreign countries, in hopes of getting me to eat my dinner. Providing an experience for your children in seeing and hearing from those less fortunate can make all the difference.

One final thought on this matter of teaching children and teens to care. Suppose there are some things that you do want to provide for them. Instead of running out and making an instant purchase, consider a dollar-for-dollar matching initiative if they have the means to earn money. Or at the very least, put limitations on when and how long they can use the item. Delayed gratification is something more children need to experience to appreciate what they do and do not have.

 

Bill Corbett has a degree in clinical psychology and is the author of the award winning book “Love, Limits, & Lessons: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Cooperative Kids,” in English and in Spanish.  He is happily married with three grown children, two grandchildren, and three step children.  You can visit his Web site www.CooperativeKids.com for further information and parenting advice.

What's Under Your Cape?

Howdy from Barbara at The Corner on Character. Since last I stopped by, life has taken a few twists and turns, one of which found me recovering from a head-on collision that totaled my car and left me broken and bruised. But the blessing in that burden was learning, by necessity, not only to slow down, but to savor. With encouragement from family and friends, I decided that it was time to publish that book I'd always dreamed about and talked about writing. Now it's with great pleasure that I share that I became a published author at one of that detour's destinations and it's with pride that I introduce  

What's Under Your Cape? SUPERHEROES of the Character Kind. 

Released on May 30,  2014, this 120-page handbook is filled with inspirational stories and innovative strategies from my thirty years in public education that will help you help your SUPERHEROES soar. Click the book cover graphic for more information on ordering the book; thank you for your invitation to talk a little bit about the publishing process from idea to rough draft to editing to printing to delivery of the final product.

It was at the end of October, 2013, in Washington D.C. at the Character Education Partership National Forum on Character Education when, dressed in my Queen of Hearts dress, I delivered my Character Is Our Super Power workshop that attracted about 70 participants . One of those audience members was Marian Nelson from Nelson Publishing and Marketing. You might recognize her imprint, Ferne Press, from Carol McCloud's Bucket Filler books. After my session, Marian asked me one simple question: Why don't I have a book? I told her that basically I do, but that I've posted it online for free at both my school's website and on my blog. Being a book publisher, Marian wasn't satisfied by my answer. If I had enough content for a book, then it just made sense that I would compile my best stories and strategies into a book. To extend my character outreach, she added. 

Well, who wouldn't want that? 

So Marian explained how her company, a small independent publisher, helps authors get their work into print and onto book shelves and she sent me a quote within the week. {Remember that car collision I survived? It left me with a slight ankle impairment on which insurance had paid a small stipend and ... get this ... that book quote came within $40 of that amount.}  The planets were in alignment and I had my God wink. So I started writing. My editor, Kris Yankee, called within the week to walk me through the process. If we wanted to debut my book in June at the Character Conference in Wisconsin, my home state, then she'd need a final draft by spring break. To be safe, I set a goal to be finished by New Year's Eve. I sent an outline that first week of November, then I wrote and I wrote and I wrote some more. I sent off chapter after chapter though Kris wasn't going to start the editing process until she had the entire draft. I actually finished my rough draft at 7:30 pm on December 31st. 

On January 2nd, 2014, my editor went to work on my manuscript.

Libby & I designed bookmarks!

Now here's what I learned:  Be committed to your content, but not too tightly stitched to your syntax. I had to detach myself from my personal stories enough to accept the suggested changes that my professional editor knew would improve the clarity and quality of the overall product. I had to entertain her questions, clear up confusion, and re-focus on my audience more times that I care to admit. But in the end, the benefit of front-loading and then being flexible {insert stretchy visual of Mrs. Incredible from The Incredibles} far outweighed the cost. We went back and forth all springtime long with editors and proofreaders and layout and more proofing. 

Then, on April 7th, I got my first glimpse of {and absolutely fell in love with} the cover. Soon afterward, it was time to ask for endorsements. I sent about ten copies of the book's interior and kindly requested feedback from other educators. Their reflections put me in orbit and brought me back to earth all at once ... to be called "the Harry Wong of character education" is an honor and incredibly humbling. It was a dream coming true; I actually had a book on its way. On May 5th, we had our sign-off meeting and my book went to a printer in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, just 20 miles away from the school where I started my career in education 30 years ago in 1984.

If you're still with me, thank you for your interest in my circle story. The book, which was delivered in bulk to my home on Monday, is now available from my blog at The Corner on Character. Order through PayPal and I'd be happy to sign it for you before I pop it into the mail. 

You can also find it at other online bookstores.

I've been blessed to do three interviews; check them out at

Maria Dismondy's Blog

Really Good Stuff Teachers' Lounge Blog

Character Counts! Character Educator Blog

I blog almost daily at the Corner on Character, so visit me there for more stories and strategies to help in your character building. Oh, and the first two readers to comment below just won a personalized copy, so leave a way for me to contact you so we can connect.

Oceans of Fun!!!

Hi! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations. 

Hi Friends!!! School is out for the summer here in Georgia and it is perfect beach weather! I can't wait to get my toes in the sand and relax a little! We take a family vacation to the beach each year with our extended family. Seven families, with 14 kids in all, living in one big house for a week can be a little hectic, but it is also a LOT of fun! There is plenty to do outdoors, but there are times when weather doesn't co-operate or we've had a bit too much sun and we need to come indoors. I've take the role as "Auntie Ayn, Activites Director". I have a few activities at the ready to keep kids busy. In the past, we've tie dyed shirts, made jewelry, planned treasure hunts, made treasure chests, kites...the list goes on and on! Today I'm sharing a few of the activities I'm planning for this year. 

One of the things we'll be making are sensory baggies. I try to provide a variety of materials so the kids can add their own personal touches. Basically, all you need is a strong plastic ziptop bag, some colored hair gel and some packing tape to secure it when you are done. 

This sensory bag has ocean foam shapes added inside.

On this bag, the foam stickers were placed on the outside of the bag.

We used colorful ocean stickers to decorate this bag before we added the hair gel.

This is one of my favorites! My daughter used permanent markers to make a "Little Mermaid" themed bag. It's perfect for older kids who want something a little more involved than just sticking on a few stickers!

Paper plate ocean animals are fun to make and quite inexpensive. We made a killer whale and a crab here. The killer whale could be easily turned in to a shark with different paint accents and maybe a few teeth! 

Another fun ocean creature to make is a jellyfish like we made with paper plates during an ocean unit in Pre-K one year.

We collect a lot of shells, shark teeth, sea glass and sea rocks while we are at the beach. I've taken these items back to school and made some really great discovery bottles. (I wrote and extensive post right here on PreK+K Sharing called "Discover, Experiment and Explore With Discovery Bottles" if you'd like more information on how I made some of the bottles below or would like additional discovery bottle ideas!) I think we'll probably make a few of these summer to reuse some of the water bottles we are using on the beach!


A beach bottle with water, sand, and some small shells...

Decorative bottle with water, oil, food coloring and glitter...

Some of the shark teeth we've collected suspended in bargain brand shampoo. You can get virtually any color you need in bargain shampoo and it works great for small items like sharks teeth because it slows the movement so you can get a longer look at small items!

This was one of the most complicated bottles I've made, but it's really cool to watch the octopus slowly float to the top when you turn the bottle! You can read more about it here.

These are a few of the books I'm taking for the kids this year--some of my favorite ocean themed books!

"The Secret Seahorse" is such a beautiful book! The story is adorable, but the illustrations are amazing!  The illustrations are photos of panels of appliqued felt with intricate stitching, beading and embellishments. (Quite similar to how our own Debbie Clement illustrates her books by stitching quilts and taking photos! Be sure to check out her books here, if you haven't done so already!)

On every page, a "secret seahorse" is hidden. Part of the fun is looking for the seahorse as you read the story!

You can find all of these in my Amazon "Ocean of Fun" aStore:







These are just a few titles that I have ready to pack for our beach week. Below are a few more titles of fun books to read about the beach --- these are favorites in my class!




While this post focused on some our indoor activities, most of our beach fun is out in the sun! One of our favorite things is to take "loose parts" down to the beach! Check it out:

Beach Bummin': Loose Parts

If you'd like to read more about some of our other beach activities, be sure to check out:

At Play At The Beach

Fun In The Sun

Beach Bummin': Water Play

Beach Bummin': Sand Play

Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!

 

Bubble Fun!

Hi! This is Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together. Our Kindergarten classes had a wonderful day with bubbles, and I wanted to share some of the fun with you. The Discovery Center, a local science center, came to show the children some fun things to do with bubbles. We had everything set up outside on the basketball court for our bubble centers. Everything we used was inexpensive and easy to find.

First we started with our bubble solution which was Dawn dish detergent and water. I read that if you make this and let it sit overnight, it gets stronger. (I didn't check Snopes on that one, but it's worth a try!)

We stared our lesson with lots of wonderful science vocabulary.

The children learned about solid, liquid, and gas, and what water looks like in each of these forms.

We talked about elasticity and explained that this is how bubbles are able to s-t-r-e-t-c-h.

The woman from the Discovery Center had the children try to think of something they wear every day that also has elasticity. The children were THRILLED to hear that it was underwear. You can imagine how silly they thought that was...

Cohesion was another vocabulary word the children learned. We asked the children if they thought anyone could put a hand through a bubble without popping it. We had many tries and no success. Then, we explained that cohesion is when molecules or tiny parts of something like water
stick together to make bigger drops of water. If your hand is wet, it can break right through the bubble without popping it. So we had our little scientist wet her hand with bubble solution, and stick it right through the bubble. This picture is from One Charming Party. I didn't get a good picture of the experiment.

This station let the children blow there little hearts out and make bubbles, and then measure how high they could blow a bubble mountain.

Bubble Painting was a huge hit. The pictures turned out looking like tie dye papers. Each bowl of bubble solution had a different color in it. After the children blew the colored bubbles, they put a sheet of paper over the top. Then, they went to a different color. We had LOTS of straws and a garbage can handy- and the kids were great about using it.

The children had fun seeing which things floated and which sank to the bottom of the bowl. It worked much better when they put in one item at a time, but... they got excited.

We had out a tray of pipe cleaners and cut straws. The children could build any size and shape bubble wand they wanted, and then try it out.

Success!

One favorite station was the hand bubble wand area. The kids were amazed that they were born with a built in bubble wand. So much fun!

The children learned that practically anything can be a bubble wand- hangers, straws, fly swatters, cheese graters... We had fun starting off with different shaped toys- like the triangle hanger or the square grid, and then noticing that no matter what shape the wand is, the bubble will always be a sphere. 

I have always loved this little fact... Just try it.

Remember it the next time you are feeling grumpy. Meanwhile, have a ball with bubbles!
I'd love you to stop over to my blog, Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together. Thanks for visiting!